bböp

39 minutes ago, Brian F. said:

seems to be moving on from it almost as fast as they mostly moved on from Cruel Country.

Now that’s not entirely true…they play Cruel Country (preceded by I Am My Mother) at almost every gig.*

 

*tongue firmly in cheek

Wilco’s second of three Japanese shows on this brief run, and its final one in Tokyo, looks to have been the barnburner of the two nights, as expected. Thanks to the folks at Wilcoworld, we once again have the setlist to tide us over as we await reports from our correspondent on the ground:

Hell Is Chrome

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Kamera

Side With The Seeds

Random Name Generator

At Least That’s What You Said

Hummingbird

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, Etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

Theologians

Heavy Metal Drummer

I’m The Man Who Loves You

A Shot In The Arm

—————————————————

California Stars (with Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart of Finom on vocals and Spencer Tweedy on drums and shakers)

Red-Eyed-And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)

I’m A Wheel

Unfortunately I’m not able to be in Japan for Wilco’s once-in-a-decade run of shows in that special land, but I know we have at least one correspondent on the ground there, so I’m just going to start this thread and let him go take the reportage reins for a few days…

For now, thanks to the good folks at Wilcoworld, here was the complete setlist for the band’s first show in Japan on this short run:

Infinite Surprise

Pittsburgh

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

One Wing

If I Ever Was A Child

Cousin

Hummingbird

Via Chicago

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Evicted

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Heavy Metal Drummer

Box Full Of Letters

Whole Love

The Late Greats

A Shot In The Arm

————————————————

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Originally Wilco's final show of 2023 was scheduled to be held at the Teatro Angela Peralta, a charming outdoor amphitheatre tucked into México City's Polanco neighborhood, but less than a week ago, ticketholders were notified that the concert would be changing venues due to "determinations made during a neighborhood assembly which have made impossible the carrying out of the event at the place previously designated" (if Google Translate is to be believed). Instead, the show would now take place at the Frontón México, an indoor multi-purpose facility about three miles away that hosts everything from trade expos to jai alai to concerts.

Not that the change probably mattered much from Wilco's perspective in terms of what songs the band chose to play on this last night of a busy touring year. It's not as if Jeff and Co. tweaked the setlist much because the show moved from outdoors to indoors. And anyway, I got the sense that the band could have done just about anything as long as they played Impossible Germany and a few of their "signature" tunes from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and other albums and this crowd would probably have been satisfied. It wasn't an audience demanding super deep cuts, in my estimation.

Although one gentleman next to me in the front row yelled a request for Company In My Back late in the set, and that let to one of Jeff's few extended comments of the night. "Ah, by now you probably realize we're getting toward the end and we're not gonna play every song," Jeff said. "I'm sorry. Because we have 800 of them. We're only gonna play 500."

Before I get too much further with this recap, I must take a moment and briefly mention the weird venue setup and crowd alignment. In changing from a venue that was sold with all or mostly reserved seating, I figured there was no way that they would be able to translate that to a different venue but actually they did an almost heroic job transferring the seat you originally bought to an equivalent seat in the new venue. Like, when you came it, there were people with spreadsheets that had your original seat in the old venue and what specific seat that corresponded to in the new one. So that was good. However, in the new venue, the seating was stadium style and set up on risers so it didn't seem to make it very easy for people to stand up during the show if they wanted to. In the end, only some in the front row ended up standing and only because there was room to stand at the foot of the first riser and not feel like they were blocking people, if that makes any sense.

So you had this weird dynamic of only part of the front row standing and everyone else sitting (albeit in stadium-style rows, so I guess everybody could see). But then there was also a four-foot aisle between the front row of people standing and the barricade that security was keeping clear so that traffic — mostly tireless two-man teams of beer vendors — could flow back and forth. Sorry for those of you who like to have the rail to lean on during shows...no rail for you! It was just an odd vibe in there from that standpoint. On the positive side, I can report that unlike in Guadalajara, there were several "fill" speakers along the front of the stage, so the sound was excellent in the front and seemingly everywhere in the room.

And that was a good thing, especially on some of the guitar workouts that probably characterized the show. Impossible Germany, in particular, was especially lively tonight, continuing Nels' recent trend of stretching the solo out a bit further. He ran the gamut from furious strumming to working the whammy bar to elegantly soaring crescendos in an effort that brought virtually the entire audience to its feet by the end of the song, bellowing "Olé, olé, ole´, Wilco," as Jeff pointed toward the lanky guitarist, who by then had already taken a seat on his stool as he prepared to play lap steel on the subsequent Jesus, etc. (on which the band was once again joined by Estrella Sanchez and Sebastian Neyra of support act Mint Field on vocals, reprising their performances from Guadalajara the other night).

There were a few minor hiccups, such as when Glenn's sample pad began acting up and feeding back early on in I Am Trying To Break Your Heart and drum tech Ashwin came out and unplugged it and simply took it away for a few songs, which of course resulted in a much less noisy ending than usual to IATTBYH. I wonder how many people in the audience really noticed. Likewise when Jeff flubbed a lyric late in If I Ever Was A Child — he didn't sing the "...or hold you too tight" part and I think realized it right after and glanced over at John — but otherwise didn't betray his minor slip-up, I'd bet not many in the crowd picked up on it.

Of course the show — and the touring year — was destined to end with one last run through Spiders (Kidsmoke). Jeff wasn't as visceral with his guitar shredding as he maybe has been at other shows, though he did emphatically scream the "There's no blood on my hands" lyric several times before the final breakdown. He urged on the audience by saying, "México City, we'll be back. Do you want to do this?" and trying to get everyone to stand and at least clap along. After pausing briefly to get everyone back together on the beat, much to Glenn's relief, Jeff even managed to get the somewhat reluctant audience to sing a few measures of "ba ba ba bas," before bringing the song to its natural conclusion.

In his only other comments beyond "muchos gracias” I haven’t already noted, Jeff mentioned earlier in the show how much he and his bandmates loved playing for the México City audience and noted how it had been three years since they had last been here — actually closer to four now — and he thanked everyone for inviting them back. Here's hoping it won't take another four years before the next time, if only to see what the next round of bootleg merch will bring…just kidding. ¡Sí, se puede! El Jefe (that’s Jeff).

Here was the complete setlist, as played (Falling Apart (Right Now) was on the printed setlist as the second song of the encore but wasn't played):

Infinite Surprise

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Levee

If I Ever Was A Child

Cousin

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Misunderstood

How To Fight Loneliness

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc. (with Estrella Sanchez and Sebastian Neyra of Mint Field on vocals)

The Late Greats

Dawned On Me

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

----------------------------------------------

Via Chicago

California Stars

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

7 hours ago, lost highway said:

I love that city. Please tell me the venue was somewhere downtown in the old Spanish architecture and not in some suburb. That's how I want to picture Wilco serenading the tapatios.

 

(Fun fact: Guadalajara is sister city to my hometown of Denver CO because they have nearly identical elevations and are similar in population).

It was about a 15-minute walk from the Centro Historico. I wouldn't say it was the suburbs by any stretch, but I wouldn't say it was exactly near the old Spanish architecture either. Sort of in a non-descript commerical area adjacent to the historic district.

1 hour ago, jw harding said:

The 2nd ever rendition of the full Many Worlds, I believe. Not played since it's Solid Sound debut. Love that song. 

It was the third complete performance of Many Worlds by the full band, I believe. They played it the second night in Iceland to start the encore, but not since then. I hadn’t realized it was quite that rare. Thanks for making me go back and check.

It's almost always fun to see Wilco in a place the band has never played before, at least it is for me (and I assume it is for the guys). Especially in a foreign country, there's a different kind of energy in the audience and it's interesting to see what people respond to and how they respond. With a band that's been around as long as Wilco has, you don't often get to experience being in an audience anymore where you get the sense that the vast majority of those around you are truly seeing it all with fresh eyes.

Certainly that was a marked contrast from how the band had spent the past week or so, which was also spent playing shows in Mexico at their biennial Sky Blue Sky Festival but seemed like a world away from tonight's gig in bustling Guadalajara. The Teatro Diana is a surprisingly big multi-level theater located on a busy street adjacent to a Sears and across from a Walmart that can hold up to 2,345, but probably only had about half that for Wilco by my rough estimate (it didn't look like either of the two balcony levels was open, for example). That said, it was a pretty nice venue for those with seats close to the stage because the stage was relatively low. However, I must say that in the front the sound was pretty miserable without any "fill" speakers whatsoever. I'm sure Jeff's vocals sounded good somewhere in that room, but I can attest that it wasn't from the first few rows.

Then again, maybe it just wasn't the type of room in which sound traveled all that well in general. It just never seemed to me that there was ever a huge crowd roar, if that makes any sense. Even when people were cheering — the occasional "Olé, olé, olé, Wilco" chant sporadically broke out — it always seemed slightly muted to my ears. At least visually the band was able to once again deploy its usual lighting design with the layers of white "fringe" backdrop with projected visuals as opposed to a series of video screens at SBS.

And at any rate, Wilco still took advantage of the indoor theater setting. Even if it was the band's first time ever playing in Guadalajara, Jeff and his bandmates chose to perform a couple of songs off their most recent albums that even some veteran audiences would kill to hear, such as the full Many Worlds off Cruel Country and the delicate Sunlight Ends off Cousin. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention that the tunes I Am My Mother (with its lyric "Dangerous dreams have been detected/streaming over the Southern border") and Cruel Country didn't take on some added resonance hearing them on this side of the divide.

"It's so good to be here, finally," Jeff said about 10 songs into the show, in one of his few extended comments of the evening. "Guadalajara, thanks for inviting us. I can't believe it's taken us 30 years."

Another nice moment came when Jeff invited two members of young Mexican support act Mint Field, who also played at SBS, to come out and sing on Jesus, etc. Vocalist/guitarist Estrella Sanchez took the mike between John and Pat, while bassist Sebastian Neyra stood between Jeff and Nels. Both took the lead vocal on the second verse, got a nice ovation afterward and seemed happy to be there.

I guess you could say that for just about everybody on stage, though. Of course it wasn't playing outdoors along the sea at a resort, but it also was in some ways an even more receptive audience (one that stood from the start and remained standing throughout, I might add). And being in Guadalajara didn't preclude a sense of fun by Jeff and his bandmates, who seemed perhaps even looser at times than they had been on the beach. Jeff trying to roll his Stetson down his arm at one point? Sure. Pat almost falling over while doing his B-bender shenanigans during Falling Apart (Right Now) and having to literally be helped up by John? Yep. Glenn shaking his noisemaker contraption with a little extra gusto on California Stars? Why not.

Once again, I'm not sure how much of this goofiness was lost or appreciated by an audience mostly seeing the band live for the first time but certainly it made for an interesting dynamic. I think, like most crowds, the natural appeal of Wilco comes in fairly obvious moments like Nels' solo on Impossible Germany or "famous" songs like California Stars, but hopefully the band made at least a few fans whose dedication will be more lasting than the various goods hawked by the bootleg merch vendors outside the venue.

Even if they didn’t get Spiders (Kidsmoke) to close out the proceedings, as some had been clamoring for, I'm pretty sure I saw at least a few people pogoing around me on the show-closing Outtasite (Outta Mind), which Jeff audibled to after the weird standalone I Got You (At The Of The Century). No Spiders, no foul. Te amo Tweedy, indeed.

Here was the complete setlist, as played (as mentioned, Spiders was on the printed setlist as the final song of the show but was replaced by Outtasite (Outta Mind)):

Infinite Surprise

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Sunlight Ends

Handshake Drugs

Many Worlds

Evicted

Whole Love

Cousin

Hummingbird

How To Fight Loneliness

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc. (with Estrella Sanchez and Sebastian Neyra of Mint Field on vocals)

The Late Greats

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

--------------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

17 hours ago, u2roolz said:

The Tweedy Show Episode 222 Monday December 4, 2023

Sky Blue Sky

Jeff Tweedy (and Friends) at Heaven Beach

 

A Robin Or A Wren (partial)

Natural Disaster

— Jeff quips “This is my side hustle…I was going to take some Uber shifts, but I started a band”. 

Opaline

Summer Noon

— Jeff explains how earlier in the day he accidentally texted Salman Rushdie “to go into the ocean”, instead of Susie.

Gwendolyn

— Jeff talks about the new song that he wrote with the lyrics “die on the beach in the sun”, but they were not able to prepare it in time. 

Evergreen

Half-Asleep

Don't Forget

I Know What It's Like

Some Birds

The Red Brick>

Warm (When The Sun Has Died)

Family Ghost

—Jeff admits that he skipped over two songs in the setlist. 

Low Key

Guess Again

Let's Go Rain

Friendship (Pops Staples cover sung by Sammy Tweedy, Spencer Tweedy and Sima Cunningham.)

Houses (Elyse Weinberg cover sung by Cate Le Bon and Jeff Tweedy.)

Cosmic Dancer (T. Rex cover sung by Sammy Tweedy.)

— Jeff jokes before walking off stage “We practiced for 10 minutes. We probably didn’t need the 10 minutes”.

Band includes:

James Elkington on guitar

Macie Stewart on violin & backing vocals

Sima Cunningham on backing vocals

Liam Kazar on bass & backing vocals

Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals

Spencer Tweedy on drums & backing vocals.

*Cate Le Bon lead vocals on Houses

 

I never got the IG notification that Susie was streaming this on Monday afternoon. I didn’t realize it until late Tuesday evening, when I was checking to see if we would see the final night. Thank you for streaming this great set, Susie!

 

She must have started recording slightly late because the first song of the set was the new one, Cry Baby Cry. And they did play A Robin Or A Wren in its entirety. Just FYI.

55 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

 

Since you're asking, the lodger character was Eddie Yates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urisnmO3NdY

Except for a dabble with Angie and Den I don't think I've watched a soap opera since Stan/Hilda/Eddie left Coronation Street.

 
This is the kind of content people come to Via Chicago to be mystified by. Certainly not any of my idiotic ramblings…

I never upload photos, but I shall try to add one of our Stan from last night since I am indeed a Stan stan:

If that was indeed the last time Wilco participates in the Sky Blue Sky Festival in its current location and/or format, as some rumors have suggested, then the band certainly left the Hard Rock Hotel with a performance that touched on just about every corner of its catalog and showed why it has such wide-ranging appeal. And not only that, but a familiar face for so long at the front of house/sound desk console at Wilco shows made an appearance on stage to receive an award and some long-overdue public recognition, allowing me to finally use the line that I've been wanting to deploy for a long time: Tonight we are all Stan stans.

Yes that's right, as Jeff and his bandmates returned to the stage for an encore, Jeff was carrying a trophy in one hand. He explained to the audience that the band was presenting recently retired sound engineer Stan Doty with Wilco's first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award, noting that he was at Sky Blue Sky as a guest of the band and if anyone had seen Wilco play in the last 25-plus years, Stan had likely mixed the show. A beaming Stan joined the band on stage to accept both his trophy and hugs all around. Truly a touching moment.

As for the show itself, we got a little of everything — some deep cuts (maybe a couple too deep for this crowd?), some nostalgic old favorites, a few collaborations/guest appearances and a rocking encore. I personally lost my you-know-what a little bit when the band started A Magazine Called Sunset, which hadn't been performed live since the run of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 20th anniversary shows in April 2022 and before that not since 2017. "Is that song always that short?" Jeff subsequently asked. I felt like replying, 'Uh, that's why it was a B-side,' but held my tongue.

We also got Star Wars rarity The Joke Explained, on which highly regarded jazz drummer Makaya McCraven came out to, uh, contribute some percussion via shakers. Jeff prefaced McCraven's guest turn by acknowledging that the cameo was "under utilizing his talent." Afterward Jeff remarked that the last time the band had played the song was at Sky Blue Sky — though I think maybe he thought it was the one in 2022 when it was actually at the first edition back in 2020 — and joked that maybe it would just be a song for SBS. (At that point, I'm not sure if an audience member yelled out a request for Shake It Off or was just saying something else that got misheard as that, but Jeff got wind of it and joked about the prospect of playing that song right then seeming to give Pat "a panic attack." Of course Glenn and the rest of the band started to try and piece the song together and gave an amusing little tease of the song that Pat even eventually contributed to for a second or two. Maybe you had to be there, but I found it pretty entertaining.)

Other delightful collaborations during tonight's show came with Kevin Morby on vocals and Macie Stewart on violin on Jesus, etc., as well as Cate Le Bon on another Cousin track, this time Soldier Child. On the former, Morby didn't just provide backing vocals but took the second verse on his own and I guess the only other thing I could have asked for would have been for him to be joined by his significant other Katie Crutchfield, aka Waxahatchee, whose band had the early 8 p.m. slot on the Main Stage and featured drumming by Spencer Tweedy.

More to come, but tomorrow is transit day and so some shut eye is required.

For now, here was the complete setlist as played for the third and final Wilco set at Sky Blue Sky 2023 (there were no changes/omissions from the printed setlist):

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

Company In My Back

One Wing

Pot Kettle Black

Side With The Seeds

How To Fight Loneliness

Soldier Child (with Cate Le Bon on vocals)

Whole Love

The Joke Explained (with Makaya McCraven on shakers)

Everyone Hides

Heavy Metal Drummer

Random Name Generator

Jesus, etc. (with Kevin Morby on vocals and Macie Stewart on violin)

Theologians

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Hate It Here

A Magazine Called Sunset

The Late Greats

A Shot In The Arm

-----------------------------------------------------

Monday>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Typically the third day of Wilco's four-day Sky Blue Sky Festival has been an "off night" for the headlining band, so that means another act — this year it was Father John Misty — takes the featured slot on the Main Stage and gives the members of Wilco the flexibility to do some other things (mezcal tasting with Nels and John, anyone?). In Jeff's case, that has primarily meant playing a set with his solo band, and this year was no exception.

And just like she did at the last SBS, beloved cinnamontoastographer Susie R. Miller Tweedy gave those unable to get to Mexico a glimpse at what life here looks likes by live streaming (and archiving) the show on her Instagram page, which is why I don't feel my reportage is especially necessary. Yet I shall persist...eventually.

Anyway, I guess we should just start at the beginning with what I believe was the live full-band debut of a new song called Cry Baby Cry that Jeff shared an early version of on his Substack a few months back and then played again the other day on the latest episode of the Tweedy Show. It might still be a work in progress, but it obviously it's far along enough that it's ready to be performed. Actually, the real news — assuming Jeff wasn't joking — was that there was to be another new song in the set, one with lyrics that included, "Ain't it a shame when you want to die on the beach in the sun/Ain't it a shame when you want to die young."

"But we didn't get that shit together for you (in time)," Jeff admitted. "I think my children slow rolled that one."

Just before that, Jeff had maybe his lengthiest visit to Banter Corner during the set when he told, or perhaps slightly botched, a story about having gotten into the ocean earlier in the day and trying to send a text message to his wife but instead sending it to the author Salman Rushdie. I won't attempt to try and recount the various ebbs and flows of the storytelling here, but suffice it to say that Rushdie did not text back.

At any rate, there wasn't a great deal of time for idle chatter during the relatively tight 75-minute set (though Jeff was certainly in a loosey-goosey kind of mood, realizing at one point that he had accidentally skipped a song or two on the setlist and then suggesting that the band could skip other songs). When some in the crowd balked at that suggestion, he quipped, "Just because we're on vacation doesn't mean we don't keep strict time. Don't be a dick."

More to come, but for now, here was the complete setlist, as played, for what should more accurately be called Jeff Tweedy and friends (Flowering/Guaranteed was on the printed setlist I saw but was scratched out, while You Are Not Alone was listed as the penultimate song of the set but wasn't played; also the order of the songs in the second half of the set got jumbled):

Cry Baby Cry

A Robin Or A Wren

Natural Disaster

Opaline

Summer Noon

Gwendolyn

Evergreen

Half-Asleep

Don't Forget

I Know What It's Like

Some Birds

The Red Brick>

Warm (When The Sun Has Died)

Family Ghost

Low Key

Guess Again

Let's Go Rain

Friendship [Pops Staples] (with Sammy and Spencer Tweedy and Sima Cunningham on lead vocals)

Houses [Elyse Weinberg] (with Cate Le Bon on vocals)

Cosmic Dancer [T. Rex] (with Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals)

7 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Strange. You mentioned a 'different' atmosphere last night too. Wonder if people are partied out by the evening or whether there is some audience filtering at this event based on recent economic events (not sure if that is so much of a thing in the USA) that gives a different vibe.

Probably as Cardiff lost to Llanelli at the weekend, with Ellis getting sent off. Our youngsters are doing well though with an exciting brand of rugby. But as she's from West Wales originally maybe she's still a Turk and was just guilty that he should not have been sent off.

 

Re: the ruggers, yes, I'm sure that's it. Have I ever mentioned I love the Welsh accent?

As to your more serious question, I'm not sure what it is. I've been trying to put my finger on it. I mean, the event definitely feels undersold...no matter what the room tallies on the event and/or resort sites might indicate. It also just seems to me that there are a lot of people here who I might categorize as a certain type of middle-aged music fan, to whom Wilco might be a band they would categorize as one of their favorites (or even their "favorite") but to whom the idea of a music vacation is more of the appeal. If the headlining band were another "favorite" and/or "cool" band, like say The National or someone like that, they would also make the trip. So as a result you get some people who aren't necessarily as ardently into Wilco or something but are just happy to be somewhere tropical and enjoying the tunes, brah. Or couples looking for a getaway from the kids. And I'm sure other categories as well...

There also seems to be quite a few friends/family/guests of artists, crew and people who have some association with Wilco, too, I'm guessing (booking agents, etc.) and that also adds to the numbers of attendees, but not necessarily the truly rabid fans.

Someone asked me after tonight's second of three Wilco sets at this year's edition of the Sky Blue Sky Festival whether I liked the previous night's performance or tonight's better, and obviously it's difficult to argue against the latter. Jeff seemingly felt much better after having to cut Night 1's set short due to some symptoms of heat exhaustion. And while both night's setlists were filled with more than a few deeper cuts and/or songs that don't get played as often these days, Night 2 just felt more like a typical Wilco show in terms of pacing, antics and the like.

Just as a point of comparison, however, the two nights clocked in at almost identical lengths (1 hour, 48 minutes for Night 1 vs. 1:49 for Night 2). And I actually enjoyed the zany side of Jeff and his bandmates that the Night 1 theme of "album openers" — and perhaps also some technical problems — seemed to bring out in which they were more willing to try something that maybe they hadn't rehearsed or could definitely go wrong.

That said, Night 2 simply felt like a delightful performance by the band most people traveled here to see — even if only sporadic pockets of audience members in the already-sparse crowd at the Hard Rock Hotel seemed genuinely enthusiastic. I think more people honestly got into the "Blue" theme night, as designated by event promoter Cloud 9; the word about the theme didn't really get out in a very efficient manner, IMHO, though more than a few folks clearly did get the message. Shoutout to the Blues Brothers-costumed couple in the front row, Brian and Sue, who Jeff briefly mentioned early on.

Though Jeff didn't explicitly announce a theme for tonight's setlist, it seemed almost obvious from the start that there would be a country-ish bent to the proceedings with Hesitating Beauty and the twangy waltz-ified version of Box Full Of Letters kicking things off. That opening duo led into the by-now familiar Cruel Country opening pair of I Am My Mother and Cruel Country, and the show was off and running.

Wearing just a plain black T-shirt, unusually sans any outer layer, Jeff showed he was feeling better almost immediately. Aside from joking about the "Blue Night" theme, he also took aim at the noisemakers that some people had created earlier in the day during a workshop with Glenn. "OK, everybody with their crafts that they made with Glenn...let's hear them before they get confiscated," Jeff quipped, while Glenn made some defiant faces behind him. A few songs later, Jeff also noted to no one in particular, "There's a little more air blowing around here tonight."

Another visit to Banter Corner involved Jeff being unsympathetic toward anyone who had gotten a bit too much sun. "Is anyone sunburnt?" Jeff asked about halfway through the set. "That's on you. I've got a neighbor who's here who's a skin doctor, and he frowns on that."

Of course one thing that had been missing from the opening-night set that had been a highlight of the last Sky Blue Sky event were some collaborations between Wilco and some of the other artists on the bill. The most obvious candidate was Cate Le Bon, who produced the band's most recent album Cousin and performed her own subdued set earlier in the afternoon on the Beach Stage. Fortunately, we were treated to Le Bon joining Wilco on vocals on Evicted. Another guest appeared on stage in the form of Dr. Dog/Waxahatchee/Kevin Morby drummer Eric Slick, who contributed maracas to California Stars (and got jokingly called Morby by Jeff when someone asked who he was). Unfortunately there was no return to the stage by Lucinda Williams, who had performed a rocking 75-minute set on the Main Stage with her band — overcoming an early hiccup with her vocals — prior to Wilco.

Another letdown was the absence of It's Just That Simple from what purported to be a country-ish set, though we later learned that it indeed had been on the printed setlist but simply not played. Which made John's saying something to Jeff on stage around that time make more sense in retrospect; perhaps he just wasn't feeling up to singing the song tonight, but who knows? At any rate, not long after that, the "country" theme seemed to grow to include "silly songs" as well as Walken and Kingpin closed the main set (and later, I'm A Wheel was added as an impromptu second encore).

Two Wilco sets down and one to go, and I'm learning that this festival continues to be as enjoyable as ever and seems to bring out a different energy in the band but also maybe attracts a different kind of audience as well. Of course there are regulars I see at a lot of shows and some I've gotten to know over the years, but I'm also surprised by how "dead" the crowd can seem at times. In part I'm basing that on the relative lack of participation on, for example, the clapping bits in Casino Queen and Kingpin or should-be singalongs on songs like Someday Soon, Give Back The Key To My Heart or even, God forbid, California Stars. "Were you singing along?" Jeff asked after What Light. "That's kind of the point of everything." And later, when apparently not enough people were responding on the call-and-response part of Kingpin, Jeff chided the non-participants by saying in part, "If you think you're too cool to do this, you're at a resort in Cancun."

Touché, sir...

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 at Sky Blue Sky 2023 (It's Just That Simple was on the printed setlist but not played, while I'm A Wheel wasn't on the printed list but was added as a second encore):

Hesitating Beauty

Box Full Of Letters (waltz version)

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

If I Ever Was A Child

What Light

Shouldn't Be Ashamed

Evicted (with Cate Le Bon on vocals)

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Tired Of Taking It Out On You

Forget The Flowers

Someday Soon

I'll Fight

Someone To Lose

California Stars (with Eric Slick on maracas)

A Lifetime To Find

Walken

Kingpin

--------------------------------------------

Red-Eyed And Blue>

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

Casino Queen

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Give Back The Key To My Heart [Doug Sahm]

----------------------------------------------

I'm A Wheel

Some 23 months since the last edition of Wilco's Sky Blue Sky Festival at the Hard Rock Hotel in Mexico's Riviera Maya corridor, it's hard to express the different feelings conjured by being back here. On one hand, there's some sense of déja vu with the familiar layout of the resort and the different concert stages (though a few changes have been made to some of the restaurants and buildings). But awaiting Wilco's set on the opening night of this year's event, you also couldn't help but think about all that had happened in both Wilcoworld and the world at large since the band last performed on Mexican soil.

At the last Sky Blue Sky, if you recall, Wilco had to replace keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen — who had tested positive for COVID just prior to the festival — with a rotating cast of pals including Finom's Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart as well as Cunningham's brother Liam Kazar. Also consider the fact that the band has released not one, but two, records since the last Sky Blue Sky, including this year's Cousin, produced by 2023 SBS participant Cate Le Bon, and the three sets Wilco will play this year could go any number of ways.

One good thing about Sky Blue Sky in its relatively brief history has been that it has seemed to free Jeff and his bandmates to be a bit more uninhibited than they might ordinarily be, at least in terms of trying some different things with setlists, attempting some deeper cuts and just generally throwing a little more caution to the proverbial wind. There was the unannounced "no repeats" trilogy of shows the first year, for example and more than a few surprise guest singers last time. So when we heard the band soundchecking a couple of songs it hadn't played in a while earlier in the afternoon — Art Of Almost and Can't Stand It — you figured something was up.

And that feeling got even more pronounced when the band took the stage to the recorded track EKG from Star Wars, which it used to do during that brief run of shows in 2016 when it performed that album from start to finish. About seven songs into the set, Jeff finally asked if anyone in the crowd recognized the theme of the set thus far and it didn't take long for a guy named Alex in the front row to chime in with the correct answer: First tracks off Wilco albums. (Unfortunately Jeff told Alex there was no prize for coming up with the correct answer, but Jeff told Alex to record a video of Jeff saying he had the right answer, and Alex got a nice ovation from the crowd.)

Now technically, there are more than a few nits to pick with this setlist theme, some of which Jeff pointed out himself. He said that one opening track had been purposely omitted (presumably Cruel Country's I Am My Mother) because the band wanted to play it another night, while another track was actually "a second song." Actually, the track Jeff was referring to — Schmilco's Cry All Day — was that record's third song; Normal American Kids is the opening track on Schmilco...oopsie. And Jeff admitted the band had forgotten one opening track all together while creating the Night 1 setlist — namely, Ode To Joy's Bright Leaves — but Wilco was actually able to rectify that in the moment by pulling off the relative rarity. (Jeff also noted Being There Disc 2 opener Sunken Treasure was "a bonus first track.")

In acknowledging the "opening track" theme, Jeff admitted, "We don't have enough songs to do (an entire show of album openers) — when we get to 20 albums, we'll get back to you — but we're gonna keep on going." Now, I wasn't necessarily expecting Walt Whitman's Niece or Bugeye Jim off Mermaid Avenue Vols. 1 and 3, respectively, but I think maybe Airline To Heaven (Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2) wouldn't have been too much too ask (wink, wink)?

Then again, maybe Jeff already had his hands full enough with the songs on the setlist. He had his lone lyric flub on the second verse of I Must Be High, though if he hadn't halted and smiled sheepishly at himself, I'm not sure how many people would have noticed. There also seemed to be a technical issue on stage at one point having to do with the monitors, which caused Jeff to tell the audience "we're flying by the seat of our pants here," and talk his bandmates into trying to play Wilco (The Song) without really being able to hear one another. It seemed to work out OK for the most part.

Most of Jeff's visits to Banter Corner tonight involved the "opening tracks" theme, with probably the best line coming when he joked that, "Tomorrow we're gonna do all 'last songs.' That's a slow set, I'll tell you that. You don't wanna be around for that."

After Wilco "ran out" of first songs, as Jeff put it, its setlist seemed to revert back to more familiar material with two cuts off Cousin, Levee and the title track, as well as fan favorites such as Hummingbird and Impossible Germany. Following I'm Always In Love, the band left the stage but seemed primed for at least a brief encore. However, despite its crew bringing out guitars, the house music came on and no encore materialized, leaving the crowd a bit miffed. Then again, maybe this crowd didn't really deserve an encore — or even the planned end of the main set. I can't really say the energy level during the show was especially fantastic, but who knows exactly what happened? At least we still have a couple more Wilco sets here to look forward to, hopefully with some more of the irreverent energy that characterized the first half of tonight's set.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 at Sky Blue Sky (Bright Leaves was not on the printed setlist, and the final five songs on the printed list were not played — Dawned On Me, Meant To Be and A Shot In The Arm to close the main set and Spiders (Kidsmoke) and I'm A Wheel as the encore):

EKG (recorded track, played as band walked on stage)

Infinite Surprise>

Art Of Almost

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Can't Stand It

At Least That's What You Said

Misunderstood

I Must Be High

Cry All Day

Bright Leaves

Wilco (The Song)

Sunken Treasure

Either Way

Levee

Cousin

Hummingbird

Via Chicago

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

I'm Always In Love

Well, since this one was filmed live from Wrigleyville, beamed via fiber-optic cable to laptops all over the world (?) and probably then chromecast — or whatever you call it — to people's big-screen plasma TVs in their man caves or patios, I think I only need provide recapping for one Albert Tatlock, who surely doesn't engage in any of this live-streaming nonsense (but might if it involved a far-off Welsh rugby match).

At any rate, Tatlock, I only have limited minutes currently to recount what transpired inside the walls of Metro tonight, where Los Wilcos played the final show of an extended run of shows dating back to early-to-mid August that Jeff called "maybe the most condensed period of touring since the early days." That grueling schedule left Jeff and his bandmates a bit physically and mentally worn down by this not-so-secret show designed to feature Cousin to a hometown audience — Jeff, in particular, continued to deal with his painful hip condition as well as a voice that was continuing to fray, as evidenced by his few sips of Coke on stage — though all of the members of the sextet performed to their usual professional level. If you hadn't seen this band, say, 30 times in the past six weeks, then you probably didn't notice too much out of the ordinary.

And I can report that, clocking in at 2 hours, 20 minutes, this was the longest show of at least the U.S. portion of this recent touring slate, which I guess made sense in a way since it technically was "An Evening With Wilco." Furthermore, judging by the different versions of printed setlists I saw, there was even more music planned (that unfortunately got scrapped in the end). One of the printed lists I saw from the stage, for example, featured a second encore with the "rock songs, etc." block of Red-Eyed and Blue, Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind) and I'm A Wheel, but whether the band was not feeling it or the crowd didn't really warrant a second return to the stage, that final block never materialized.

More to come, but for now, here was the complete setlist, as played (as noted, a second planned encore of Red-Eyed and Blue, Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind) and I'm A Wheel on the printed stage setlist was not played):

Infinite Surprise

Levee

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

Kamera

Meant To Be

Side With The Seeds

Hummingbird

Cousin

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Via Chicago

Sunlight Ends

Impossible Germany

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

A Shot In The Arm

-------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

And here was the complete setlist for the brief WXRT pop-up performance earlier in the afternoon that wound up being open to just about anyone who wanted to attend (thanks to Cold as Gasoline for recording):

Infinite Surprise

Pittsburgh

Levee

Via Chicago

Sunlight Ends

Evicted

Meant To Be

On 10/28/2023 at 3:03 PM, Brian F. said:

Not for the first time, Wilcoworld has the set list all wrong.

They put the St. Louis setlist in for Bentonville, it looks like. And haven't corrected it. Oof.

As the appointed 8:30 p.m. hour for Wilco to take the stage approached tonight, on what was technically the final night of a grueling period of touring over the past couple of months, I couldn't help but get one more strong feeling of déja vu on this run. First of all, we were standing outdoors on a large lawn area outside of a contemporary art museum. And it was lightly raining. And then suddenly, there was Joe Thompson (the eponym of Joe's Field at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Mass.) on stage introducing — and gushing over — Jeff and his bandmates.

Wait, had the time/space continuum somehow bent and relocated the Solid Sound Festival from the Berkshires of Massachusetts to the Ozarks of northwest Arkansas? About the only thing missing was a train blowing its horn as it rumbled past — and, of course, a stupid rainbow.

The steady drip of rain from the lip of the stage overhang jolted me back into reality, but it was still an eerily similar scene at the Momentary in Bentonville, whose "Green" has hosted live music since its opening in 2020. To be sure, if Wilco ever wanted to move Solid Sound away from Mass MoCA or hold a version of it in a different part of the country, this place would certainly seem to be among the prime candidates to host. I wasn't aware before tonight, but apparently the folks who run the Momentary (including interim director Thompson), which is a satellite of the nearby Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, have had a longstanding relationship and collaboration with Mass MoCA.

More to come. but for now, here was the complete setlist as played at the Momentary (Meant To Be was on the printed setlist near the end of the main set, but wasn't played):

Infinite Surprise

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

Cousin

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Soldier Child

Whole Love

Via Chicago

Impossible Germany

Evicted

Jesus, etc.

California Stars

Box Full Of Letters

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

------------------------------------

At Least That's What You Said

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Ah, St. Louis...always a date to circle on the calendar whenever Jeff and/or Wilco decided to swing through town and play a show. I mean, it is another one of those homes away from home for our leading man — in fact, it is pretty much literally that — even if he has often had a kind of tumultuous relationship with the city. Certainly there's a ton of personal history here for the Belleville, Ill., native, and I think that history has become even more intense in some ways as he has gotten older and he has gone through the sorts of life changes that we all experience.

Particularly since the death of his father Bob back in 2017, it seems like coming back home has stirred up even more feelings than usual for Jeff and of course that naturally spills over to a certain extent into his performance on stage. Tonight was no exception, and he even opened up about it toward the end of the set probably more than I've ever heard him do.

What started as just another brief audience check-in turned into more when Jeff heard one of the many shouts of "Welcome home, Jeff," from the audience. "This is very close to where I grew up, I think everybody knows that," Jeff said before Jesus, etc. "It's always very emotional coming back (now). I feel like an orphan in some ways because my folks are gone, but I still have you. I still have my aunt Gail. ... She gave me all her Motown records, her Byrds records — all of her records — and I don't know what I would have done without those."

Then to start the encore, we got the fun treat/walk down memory lane/rock romp that seems to only happen in St. Louis these days when Jeff and his bandmates started to play the familiar riff that kicks off Casino Queen. I wasn't sure it was going to happen, given the flow of the setlist at these recent shows, but I certainly wasn't complaining. And it worked well as a lead-in to the usual encore opener Falling Apart (Right Now), particularly as a sort of mini-tribute to Jeff's father. "Just because my dad isn't here doesn't mean we shouldn't play that song," Jeff said of his dad's favorite Wilco tune. "I actually think he would have liked this (next) one, too. It would have been the third song of mine that he liked."

Maybe Jeff decided to play all of his father's favorites this time since the last time he performed in town, at a solo show in July, he had several lyrical flubs that he attributed to not playing those songs. Tonight, he only had one minor snafu during Side With The Seeds when he struggled with the "...and the swings all slowly die" lyric in the first verse.

A few other music-related tidbits for the nerds included a relatively rare song dedication, of Everyone Hides, to "Amelia." Jeff didn't specify exactly who she was or why the song was dedicated to her, but did joke afterward, "I hope Amelia's here." Meanwhile, during Hummingbird, Jeff eschewed his usual clapping during the breakdown as he dug through his pockets, apparently looking for a guitar pick. And for the second consecutive night, the planned show-closing duo of Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind) was scrapped in favor of Spiders (Kidsmoke) for some reason.

Only Jeff probably can say why the latter would happen, that is why the planned end of encore would switch in the moment from one thing to another. I've always wondered how that decision gets made. Is it based on the audience, and more specifically, the energy it is giving back to the band? Because if it were just about pleasing the crowd, I can't imagine how cutting the only two songs from Being There in the entire show would do that, especially in St. Louis, where you had to figure there were more "old timers" — or at least fans of the first few albums — than people who embrace the band's more experimental side.

On the other hand, if it was about the crowd energy, well I can understand that a little more. Having a few rows in front of me tonight, I could see that not very many folks in the pit section seemed very responsive or active at all. I know different people enjoy shows in different ways, but it just seems to me like based on what I saw in front of and around me, this was a pretty blah audience. I'll never really understand how people can barely move a muscle during certain songs like A Shot In The Arm and yet I observed a number of people who stood dead still with the their arms crossed. For all the enthusiasm of people eager to welcome Jeff home, that energy just didn't seem to carry over wholeheartedly into the crowd dynamics.

Maybe with Spiders (Kidsmoke) being swapped for Monday>Outtasite, Jeff thought it would give a better chance for crowd participation. But those hopes were somewhat dashed when we got to the clapping and singing-riff section at the end of the song. After a couple of attempts to get the audience to loudly belt out the "ba ba ba ba ba bas," even Jeff had to cajole many of the attendees with an "Aw, c'mon." Ultimately, though, it seemed that the crowd on the whole lived up to the eponym of the Stifel Theatre and were, well, a bit you know.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, in St. Louis (as previously noted, Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind) were once again listed as the final two songs of the encore on the printed setlist, but were replaced by Spiders (Kidsmoke)):

Infinite Surprise

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Meant To Be

Side With The Seeds

Hummingbird

Cousin

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Everyone Hides

Via Chicago

Impossible Germany

Evicted

Jesus, etc.

The Late Greats

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

--------------------------------------------

Casino Queen

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Well, Kansas City certainly seems to be having a moment, doesn't it? At least that's how it seems to this out-of-towner. Obviously there's the Taylor-and-Travis soap opera that has captivated the nation, but apart from that, as someone who's been visiting fairly regularly for years now, I've been impressed by the continuing revitalization of downtown, the gleaming new airport that makes the dumpy old MCI seem like a distant memory and just the general sense of a city on the upswing. Heck, Wilco's show on a Wednesday night was just a blip on a cultural landscape that featured an even bigger concert (The 1975) at the T-Mobile Center and a playoff game (Sporting KC in an MLS wild-card match).

About the only thing that was a drag on this visit was, yet again, the weather. It seems like Wilco is cursed with the gloomiest, rainiest days whenever it rolls through town in recent years, or is it the other way around? Fortunately, tonight's show was already scheduled to be indoors — unlike the band's previous visit, which Jeff recalled a couple of different times during the set at the Midland Theatre.

More to come on that, but for now, here was the complete setlist, as played (Soldier Child was on the printed setlist after Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull but was skipped, and the planned Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind) encore was replaced by Spiders (Kidsmoke)):

Infinite Surprise

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

Kamera

Meant To Be

Side With The Seeds

Hummingbird

Cousin

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Via Chicago

Impossible Germany

Evicted

Box Full of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

-------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

3 hours ago, Madcap said:

Have they been doing the Many Worlds coda after VC this tour?  I had to miss the one Riv show this spring where they did it so I'm hoping to see it at the Metro next week!

Mostly they haven’t been. They did it twice in LA, the second of three nights at the Ace and then Night 2 at the Bellwether. Before that it had been since the end of the spring tour in April. They only even played Via once in Europe this summer, at the very last show in Ireland before coming home (nudge, nudge).

Anyway I wouldn’t count on the Many Worlds coda at Metro since I think the intent is to showcase Cousin, but it always could happen…

13 minutes ago, 50footqueenie said:

That's a tasty set list. 

 

And you got Levee at last.

 

You've been moaning about that for ages and now you're all meh about it. 

 

Never any pleasing some folk.

I acknowledged it! I am easily pleased...

22 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

 

You cannot exclude the other possibility Sherlock - that he did wet his pants and decided not to do it again. "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth", and "the truth is out there".

Ta

Funny, I'm currently reading The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann for a book club and that quotation just came up. And you are absolutely correct, my dear Tatlock, that this is indeed a possibility. However, in the context of the recounting of a rock concert, it is a possibility (pissability?) that I simply prefer not to discuss...

One night after Jeff admitted to struggling a bit with his voice, I'm happy to report that he returned to his usual tendency of not taking a sip of any liquid on stage — which I can only assume meant that he was feeling better in that regard. Not that he didn't have at least one case of vocal difficulties on a lovely Monday night in Nebraska, but at least that was caused by something mental and not physical.

What I'm referring to is Jeff's mind getting ahead of himself during Hummingbird when he came to the lyric, "A fixed bayonet through the great southwest..." I'm not sure if something random occurred to Jeff precisely at that moment, or if his mind for a second maybe considered changing the line to "the great midwest," but whatever it was, the words that came out of his mouth then were basically gobbledygook. It almost caused him to stop the song and start over because clearly he had made a mistake, but he ultimately pushed on and sang the rest of the song without any other snafus.

Then of course, Jeff owned the flub afterward in self-deprecating — and amusing — fashion. "You know, you get tongue-tied up here sometimes," he said. "I don't know what I sang there, but I definitely didn't sing 'the great southwest.' I have a song when I play by myself (Nobody Dies Anymore) that has a line, 'No badge knock on a dark front door," and I swear I once sang, "No fart knock on a fart front door.'"

That was by far the best visit to Banter Corner during tonight's show at the Astro Amphitheater in a suburb of Omaha, not to be confused with the more intimate indoor Astro Theater where the show was originally supposed to be held (which apparently has a capacity of about 2,500). Instead, construction delays on the new venue forced the show to move outside and out back to the amphitheater directly behind it that is significantly bigger (maybe 5,000). An outdoor show in Nebraska in late October could have been troublesome, but fortunately Mother Nature cooperated with an unseasonably warm day and the rain stayed away. "Thanks for inviting us," Jeff said. "This is really nice weather. It's terrifying. But it's good for a show."

Jeff also noted that this was the "second venue we've opened on this tour," the first being the clunkily named Scottsdale Civic Center East Bowl in Arizona — which was Oct. 3, but feels like months ago. "Ever been here before?" Jeff asked the crowd at the Astro. "We're like a test band." (It's unclear if Wilco actually was the first band to play this venue, but since most of the audience hadn't attended a show there before, I guess who's counting.)

For the most part, from a banter standpoint, Jeff otherwise stuck to his strategy of "brief check-ins" with the crowd and occasionally asked if everyone was having a good time. He explained that something had happened about halfway through this tour that told him this was the best way for him to interact with audiences moving forward. "What happened?" someone yelled out. "What happened?" Jeff replied, with Glenn cracking up behind him. "Well, I said some stupid shit into the mike and decided I shouldn't talk anymore."

Musically speaking, of course, my personal highlight was finally getting to hear Levee live. You go to enough shows, and eventually you get lucky, right? Seriously, though, it was getting comical to miss the song every single time I couldn't make a show on this run. Here's hoping our paths collide at least once more the next few days. It was lovely to hear, and to see Jeff playing a bouzouki-shaped guitar on that one. And every time I hear both Meant To Be and Soldier Child, the more those hooks take hold in my head. I suppose that's how a lot of the more recent Wilco albums have worked for me, so I'm not surprised that's been true with Cousin as well.

Of course, it was the older tunes in the band's catalog that most captivated the Astro audience (which judging by some of the conversations I heard in line waiting to get in and before the show started, featured quite a few people seeing Wilco live for the first time, which is always shocking to me). So every time Impossible Germany wows another audience, I have to remember this is why the band plays it every night. Jeff even gave Nels a little tribute afterward tonight as the crowd cheered him, quipping, "Didn't you see the hearts in my eyes?"

As the tour rolls on, I have to remind myself that these shows aren't for me. And that anyone who might gripe about setlists should remember the same. The band is putting on the show it wants to present at this time, and doing so as consistently as possible. Not that there aren't little details that don't keep things at least a little fresh, like the little instrumental intro to California Stars that might have sprung out of a moment a few weeks ago when the start of the song had to be delayed briefly for technical reasons and the rest of the band started to put an almost-exotica little spin on the start. Those little bits keep things interesting for the band, I'm sure, and for at least a few of us watching closely.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, at the Astro Amphitheater (only caught a glimpse of a printed setlist, but it didn't appear there were any changes/omissions):

Infinite Surprise

Levee

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

Kamera

Meant To Be

Side With The Seeds

Soldier Child

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Cousin

Hummingbird

Via Chicago

Evicted

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Theologians

I'm The Man Who Loves You

A Shot In The Arm

--------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

3 hours ago, Brian F. said:

I can't imagine they're able to sleep very well on the bus-- Jeff's hips, Nels' height-- so it still seems like a lot to me.

I mean, that's rock 'n' roll, right? At least for a mid-tier working band...

Hopefully someone got a good picture of Jeff taking a sip of water on stage tonight because it rarely ever happens. Better yet, maybe someone was quick enough to grab a shot of Jeff doing his best Michael Anthony impression as the show was winding down. More on that later.

What's this, Jeff actually consuming liquid on stage during a show? You knew something was amiss when he asked his guitar tech Cash to bring him a bottle of Topo Chico sparkling water early in the set and then sipped from it between songs three separate times within the first nine tunes. Indeed, as we subsequently found out (and I thought I had detected in Seattle a few night earlier), Jeff has apparently been dealing with some vocal difficulty lately — as if it wasn't enough that he had already been dealing with the osteoarthritis in his hip that will force him to get hip replacement surgery early next year.

"You may have noticed I'm struggling a little bit with my voice tonight," Jeff told the Mission Ballroom audience of several thousand about two-thirds of the way through the show. "I know everyone comes to see us for my pristine singing, but the more you sing along, the better it is."

Jeff then proceeded, in his only extended visit to Banter Corner, to explain that he usually refrains from drinking anything during a show because when he does, he feels the need to pee almost immediately. But "since we're getting close to the end of the show, I'm gonna chug this Topo Chico" and he did just that. He then joked about it being his best Michael Anthony impression — I could have sworn he actually said "Mark Anthony" — but clearly he meant the Van Halen bassist who is famed for his "Drunk Bass Solo" bit that has amused/horrified so many over the years.

"Does anybody know who that is?" Jeff asked (and incidentally, I Googled just to be sure and it turns out that Mark Anthony is the name of the brewery that makes White Claw Hard Seltzer and Mike's Hard Lemonade). "Good for you. Now I gotta burp." Pretty hilarious, and the discussion continued briefly into the next song when Jeff said that while Cash was swapping guitars, Cash said Jeff's was the second-best Michael Anthony impression he had seen and Jeff wanted to know what was the best.

Actually I didn't think Jeff's voice sounded that bad or that he was struggling all that much, but then again, it seemed like he also tailored the setlist to favor songs that probably weren't as difficult on his voice. For example, instead of going through with the planned — and more typical — encore of Falling Apart (Right Now), California Stars and Spiders (Kidsmoke), the band changed it up entirely and went with the shorter rock songs mini-set of Via Chicago and Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind). That meant a show that "only" clocked in at 1 hour and 53 minutes versus some earlier in the tour that extended to as long as 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Another factor in that show length was that other than Jeff's chugging display, there really wasn't a whole lot of other noteworthy banter except for one other moment earlier in the set when Jeff explained, again continuing a trend from recent shows, that the band's new tactic was "brief check-ins." When someone in the crowd asked how Jeff was doing, he coyly deadpanned, "You know..."

Once again, on a personal note, it appears that I missed hearing Levee yet again (which apparently got played in Salt Lake City). I'm still hopeful we'll get to hear it sometime in the next four to five shows, but I'm less optimistic about the one remaining live holdout from Cousin — A Bowl And A Pudding — making its debut this week. It might have to wait until some later date when the band has had a chance to regroup after two months straight of touring in Europe and the U.S., but we shall see.

I don't want to say that the band is necessarily limping to the finish line of an unusually busy touring slate, but I do think it's fair to say that Jeff and Co. could probably use a little bit of rest. I know I could, and I don't have to get up on a stage and perform music for two hours every night (or most every night). So I would just say it's probably a good idea to take these last few shows with a grain of salt, and temper expectations to a certain extent. If you haven't had the chance to see the band play these songs from Cousin yet, the show will still be especially enjoyable. And if you don't see them all the time, you probably won't even be able to tell that anything is amiss. The great thing about this band is that it always has the power to surprise you, but it's also not afraid to show you that it's human, too.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, at the Mission Ballroom (in terms of changes/omissions, the entire encore on the printed setlist was different from the one that was actually played — Falling Apart (Right Now)/California Stars and Spiders (Kidsmoke) were scrapped):

Infinite Surprise

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Evicted

Side With The Seeds

Hummingbird

Misunderstood

Cousin

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Impossible Germany

Meant To Be

Jesus, etc.

The Late Greats

Dawned On Me

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

--------------------------------------------------

Via Chicago

Monday>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)